Me-163 image by Ian Marshall

HISTORY

The story started in 1926 when Dr Alexander Lippisch built his first tailless glider. Over the next decade Lippisch built many tailless aircraft and also became involved with rocket propulsion, so it was no great surprise when, in 1937, he was asked by the research section of RLM to design an aircraft to test a new rocket motor intended for manned aeroplanes, the Walter I - 203.

In 1939 Lippish decided that his preliminary research aircraft, the all-wood DFS-194,could in fact be flown by the rocket and not by the intended small piston engine. The machine was taken in early 1940 to Karlshagen, the test airfield at Peenemunde, where the I-230 rocket was installed. On June 3, 1940 faed glider pilot Heini Dittmar made a successful first flight, reporting superb handling. Later this flimsy machine, designed for 300 km/h, reached 547 km/h in level flight, and also demonstrated fantastic steep climbs.

On 2 October 1941 Dittmar was towed to over 4000 m by a Bf-110;he then cast off and started the motor. He accelerated but suddenly lost control as the nose dropped violently. It was possibly the first occasion on which a human had approached a speed of sound, compressibility trouble being experienced at about Mach 0.84 the speed of 1000.4 km/h was 250 km/h above the official world speed record.

Me-163B made first flight at Lechfeld on 26 June 1942 without propellants and towed by Bf-110.Next year powered flights began.

In early 1943 a special ME-163B test squadron was formed at Kartshagen under Hauptmann Wolfgang Spate. Unit was named Erprobungskommando 16 and it later moved Bad Zwischenahn.
On August 17 1943 factory at Regensburg was heavily hit by B-17s and many pre-production batch being destroyed.

ROLE: single-seat target-defence rocket interceptor
ULTIMATE STATUS: operational
ENGINE: HWK 509 A1
COCKPIT: cockpit was comfortable, although there was no system available for pressurisation
CANOPY: flimsy Plexiglas
ARMAMENT: highly-velocity 20-mm MG151/20 or standard production armament 30-mm MK108(with 60 rounds)
HANDLING : superb
PERFORMANCE: max speed 960 km/h; service ceiling 12000m;range 130 km
WEIGHTS :empty 1900kg,maximum take-off 4310kg
DIMENSIONS: span 9.40m,length 5.85m,height(on take off dolly)2.76m,wing area 18.50 square metres
OPERATOR: Luftwaffe

The unit I/JG400 under Oberleutnant Robert Olejnik formed from Erprobungskommando 16 at Zwischenahn in May 1944 and it became operational in July, at Brandis. There were several flights against USAF heavies but without success. But on 24 August Feldwebel Siegfried Schubert destroyed two B-17 and other Comets bagged two others.

Me-163 was later armed with 50mm projectiles with photocells which were more effective than cannons.

Me-163 pilots had many problems and one of them is that the landing had to be perfect and that's not so easy to do. If pilot made any mistake during the landing procedure plane could crash and pilot could die not only because injuries, he could die also because of highly toxic fuel.

ME-163S:In 1944 to help convert the dwindling supply of pilots to the ME-163,a tandem trainer variant designated ME-163S was developed, an adaptation of the ME-163B wit h ammunitionThe ME-163S was flown only as a glider and few were converted. At the end of the war one was captured by Russians.

ME-163C:Although fast and highly maneuverable, the ME-163B had its shortcomings: One was that it was an accident waiting to happen; two that its limited fuel capacity meant only six minutes of powered flight. The summer of 1944 saw the introduction of a new rocket motor, the HWK 509C,which supplanted the 1700 kg thrust HWK 509A fitted to the ME-163B.The new motor had a 300 g thrust cruising chamber, and powered flight endurance was greatly increased when the new unit was incorporated into the redesigned ME-163C, the Walter rocket motor to increase flight time to 12 minutes. The ME-163C was slightly bigger then the B and more streamlined wit bubble canopy and had pressurised cockpit. Only three ME-163 had been completed, of which one flown, buy the end of the war. However all were destroyed to prevent capture by the Soviets. As they were still only armed with two MG 151 or MK 108 cannons, they probably would have had the same limited success as the 163-B craft.

Usage Single seat target-defense rocket interceptor Status Operational Powerplant One Walter HWK 109-509C rocket motor, 2,000 kg thrust plus 300 kg cruise chamber Span 9.80 m Length 7.05 m Wing Area 20.40 m2 Aspect Ratio 4.71 Maximum Weight 4,310 kg  Wing loading 210.83 kg/m2 Maximum speed 960 km/hr @3,000-9,000 m Climb Rate  5,000 m/min Endurance 12 minutes powered flight Armament Two MK 108 30 mm cannon or two MG 151/20 20 mm cannon, augmented by five 50 mm rocket shells fired  vertically by light-sensitive cells from each wing root

ME-163C

ME-163D/JU-248/ME-263:The ME-163D was further refined and had retraceable tricycle landing gear>one prototype was built and since the Junkers had been tasked with development and series production of this model it was for a while known as the JU-248 before reverting to Messerschmitt designation as the ME-263.It did not enter the production, the prototype being captured by Russians who fitted it with new straight wings and modified tail surfaces, flying it in 1946 as the I-270(ZH),but it was soon abandoned.

MITSUBISHI SHUSUI: Mention should be made of a licence-built version of the ME-163B,the Mitsubishi Ki-200(J8M1),which was to be built in Japan with Mitsubishi and Yokosuka building the HWKA motor. Loss of the pattern aircraft on a ship en route to Japan left Japanese with only an instruction manual, and it is to their credit that they began design of an airframe based on the ME-163B.The first aircraft flew in July 1945 but it was destroyed when the motor failed. Several were built but the programme was terminated by the end of the war.

In 1945 with some 300-in front-line service only I/JG400 was able to engage the enemy; it claimed nine bombers but lost 14 aircraft in doing so.

“One day, our project officer’s Komet 163 was fueled up and ready to fly when three Me 109s came over the field in a single line formation. I was among 30 pilots watching from the ground. Späte took off and was immediately upon them; we all saw that he easily could have picked them off. They tried to come behind him, but with his extra power and agility, he was soon behind each of them. Everybody was terribly excited to see what you could do with the new plane.” Rudy Opitz and his peers in both the Komet and Me 262 programs were the very first of a new breed of warrior. They were the first to ride into battle perched on a tongue of flame. Their hands were wrapped around technology so new and so leading edge we have little to compare it to in our time. Rudy Opitz enters a Komet Me 163B at Bad Zwischenahn while being assisted by senior Messerschmitt mechanic Schöffler. His flight suit, boots, underwear and gloves are made of a non-organic, nylon-like material. Clothing made of organic material like cotton would burst into flames on contact with T-Stoff. The pilot was protected by 13mm armor behind his head and shoulders, and 8mm armor behind his back. A 90mm armor glass screen gave frontal protection with a 15mm armor nose cone. The constant speed propeller in front drove a generator for electric power. The half century that separates then from now dulls our appreciation for the enormity of their achievements. And, yes, they were enemies. Yes, their research was intended to develop ever more potent weaponry to be used against us. But, first, last and always, they were technological pioneers who set the stage for an era not even visionaries like Robert H. Goddard could have forseen. The lethal hazards they faced on a daily basis were not the bullets of Allied soldiers but the unknown dangers of pushing aircraft technology beyond known boundaries. Without the technological breakthroughs that were central to the success of the Messerschmitt 163 Komet program, the modern jet age would have advanced far more slowly. In a huge leap forward for modern fighter development, the Komet program compressed decades of research into a few years of intense wartime effort. Rudy Opitz, now 86 years young and still an active glider pilot in Connecticut, was a central figure in the testing and development of the Komet—the most advanced fighter of WW II. He was there when the era of modern fighter aircraft was born. He knows and remembers how it happened.